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Genesis 13

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1 Abram went up out of Egypt: he, his wife, all that he had, and Lot with him, into the South.

2 Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

3 He went on his journeys from the South even to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,

4 to the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on the name of Yahweh.

5 Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.

6 The land was not able to bear them, that they might live together: for their substance was great, so that they could not live together.

7 There was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite lived in the land at that time.

8 Abram said to Lot, "Please, let there be no strife between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are relatives.

9 Isn't the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you go to the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left."

10 Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.

11 So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated themselves the one from the other.

12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom.

13 Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh.

14 Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, "Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,

15 for all the land which you see, I will give to you, and to your offspring forever.

16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then your seed may also be numbered.

17 Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its breadth; for I will give it to you."

18 Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to Yahweh.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1542

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1542. That in the internal sense these things, and those that follow in this chapter, also represent the Lord, and that it is a continuation of His life from childhood, may be seen from what was said and shown in the preceding chapter, and also from what follows, but especially from the consideration that this is the Word of the Lord, and that it has come down from Him through heaven, and therefore that not even the least bit of a word has been written that does not involve heavenly arcana. That which comes from such an origin cannot possibly be of any other nature. It has been shown already that in the internal sense the Lord’s instruction when a child is treated of. There are two things with man which prevent his becoming celestial, one of which belongs to his intellectual, and the other to his will part: that which belongs to the intellectual part consists of the empty memory-knowledges he learns in childhood and youth; and that which belongs to the will part consists of pleasures from the cupidities which he favors. These are the hindrances that prevent his being able to attain to celestial things. These are first to be dispersed; and when they have been dispersed, he can then for the first time be admitted into the light of celestial things, and at last into celestial light.

[2] As the Lord was born as are other men, and was to be informed as others are, it was necessary for Him to learn memory-knowledges, which was represented and signified by Abram’s sojourn in Egypt; and that the empty memory-knowledges at last left Him, was represented by Pharaoh’s commanding his men respecting him, and by their sending him away, and his wife, and all that he had. (See the foregoing chapter, verse 20.) But that the pleasures which pertain to the things of the will, and which constitute the sensuous man, but the outermost of it, also left Him, is represented in this chapter by Lot, in that he separated himself from Abram; for Lot represents such a man.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.